Population:
530,706

Tucson profile

Living in Tucson

Tucson is a very large city located in the state of Arizona. With a population of 530,706 people and 196 constituent neighborhoods, Tucson is the second largest community in Arizona.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Tucson is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Tucson is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Tucson who work in office and administrative support (14.83%), sales jobs (10.59%), and food service (7.97%).

Also of interest is that Tucson has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

In addition, Tucson is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on the local Tucson culture, lifestyle and music scene. In fact, Tucson is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns. The combination of big city status and thousands of college students gives Tucson on one hand, a sophisticated style, while on the other also provides a youthful feel and lots of diversions and entertainment for students. Believe it or not, Tucson is one of the biggest "college towns" in America, generating lift to the economy of the entire region, and issuing forth thousands of newly-minted college students every spring, powering the innovation economy, the arts, and a lively club scene.

Tucson is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Tucson really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Tucson citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Tucson ride the bus. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Tucson a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.

The overall education level of Tucson is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 25.76% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Tucson in 2010 was $20,896, which is middle income relative to Arizona, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $83,584 for a family of four. However, Tucson contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Tucson is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Tucson home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Tucson residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Tucson also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 42.65% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Tucson include Irish, English, Italian, and French .

In addition, Tucson has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (15.21%).

The most common language spoken in Tucson is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.